"Of the hundred times I’ve kissed you in my dreams,it’s never felt right. Every time,your mouth is..."

“Of the hundred times I’ve kissed you in my dreams,

it’s never felt right. Every time,

your mouth is all wrong; my tongue

is all left. We press together and

my metaphorical heart skips a beat,

but we are less kissing–

more slow-dancing out of step,

less kissing–more

teenagers with twisted cherry stems

we can’t Houdini into knots.

If this

is yet another red flag I have

mistaken for surrender, then I am sorry

for the selfish way I hold my body

for the both of us.

I wake up

and convince myself that the

make-believe car accident of our mouths

has everything to do with the months it’s been

since anyone properly kissed me and nothing

to do with the fact that even my subconscious

doesn’t know how to touch you.

I’m a coward.

Anyone else would have found the word “love”

somewhere more real than poetry.

You are not the first ship I’ve gone down with,

but you might be the fastest. So

you’re the prettiest anchor

I haven’t even kissed yet–

you’re prying out my teeth with a guillotine.

This isn’t the way I wanted to write about you.

This isn’t your fault, anyway.

See, it’s not that I made you into a god–

It’s that you were just a man

and I made you out to be a mountain.”

- LARGER THAN LIFE by Ashe Vernon